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| Jesus cleansing the Temple |
The Life of our Lord was filled with events that must have been a wondrous sight to behold. Apart from those narrated in the scriptures, John 21:25 tells us that “there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.” (NKJV) The child of God exhibits wisdom when he studies these events and ascertains how the principles taught apply to we who live in the Kingdom.
One of the more well known passages records our Lord driving out merchants from the Temple (John 2:13-17). Jesus sees a common practice in the first century, people buying and selling in the Temple area. There would have been those who exchanged foreign currency for the native currency to pay the Temple tax, the Jewish shekel. There were also those who sold animals for sacrifice to those who had none. The text tells us that when Jesus saw what they were doing, he made a whip of cords and drove them out, turning over the tables of the exchangers as He did this. He then commands that they take those things out of the Temple, and cease making His Father’s house a place of merchandise.
Some take the view that Jesus was enraged at the greed of the merchants in the Temple. However, simple logic defies this as an explanation for His anger and actions. It would not have taken very many steps for Him to encounter this type of greed among merchants on any section of Jerusalem’s roads. Yet, we never read of Jesus having a similar reaction toward those who sold at the marketplace. In His own words He tells why He was angered. They had made the Temple a place where activities other than worship of the Creator were engaged in.
In order to understand how this principle applies to us we must acknowledge that the worship of the Lord has changed from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant. What was a physical worship under the Old Law is now a spiritually based worship in the New Law. Colossians 2:16-17 makes this distinction clear where it says, “Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.“ This verse communicates to us that the child of God no longer needs to regard the physical requirements of the Old Law. They were merely shadows of the substance which we now realize in the New Testament, Jesus Christ. So the Temple where Jesus performed this cleansing is no longer a part of the worship of the child of God. So what can we learn from this encounter?
The worship of God is now spiritual in nature (John 4:24). So if the Jews of Jesus days had profaned the worship of the Almighty, can we do the same? The answer is a resounding “yes!” There are many churches today who claim to base their actions on the teachings and examples from the New Testament, yet their teachings and actions bear little resemblance to the church of the Bible. The easiest area to see this is in the activities that have permeated churches in the last 100 years. We can go to myriad churches and see plays, concerts, comedians, basketball, movies, televised sporting events, coffee bars, even some who require paid attendance to hear lectures. What would the actions of our Lord be if He were to come into an assembly which practiced such things? Clearly, one can see that He would view the activities in much the same way that He viewed the moneychangers and merchants in John 2. Can you imagine seeing the Lord with a whip or perhaps a winnowing fork in His hand driving these modern day merchants from the assemblies meant to honor Him?
Friends, we must be vigilant to keep the spiritual worship of our Lord pure and undefiled from human additions and ideas. There are many admonishments in the scriptures not to add to or take away from His word. Proverbs 30:6 says, “Do not add to his words, or he will rebuke you and prove you a liar.” Not adding to His word would also involve not adding to His worship, an act which he views as treasonous according to John 2. The Jews in the Temple on that day were blessed to see exactly how the Son of God viewed those things that they were engaged in. However, those who take part in such additions now will get no such visit from the Lord to remind them how He actually feels about their actions. They are expected to read the New Testament and make the connection that if God was displeased with His place of assembly being changed for the sake of convenience in the Old Law, then He certainly would be opposed to changing our spiritual communion in His name for the sake of our enjoyment. In fact, we would do well to think about who is truly being worshipped by such additions. Ourselves!
